ILR BOARD MINUTES

May 31 - June 2, 2007
Face-to-face in Kalispell, MT

Meeting called to order at 8:45 AM MDT by President Kathi McKinney. Present: Karen Baum, Kristy Brown, Kathi McKinney, Mark Smith, Sally Taylor and Jan Wassink, Registrar.

Office Operations:
Jan began the meeting with an overview of office operations starting with the financials, including a review of the leases for the ILR rental units.

Motion: Kristy Brown. A finance charge of 1.5% may be added to all accounts after 30 days. All collection costs and attorney fees will be added to the account. Second: Karen Baum. 4 Ayes.

In a review of maintenance issues Jan advised the parking lot will need to be paved by fall. The county is requiring businesses to pave parking lots to reduce dust emissions and Jan feels it would be prudent to pre-empt an order from the city and get it done. The overhang at the front of the office should be on a list of “to do” repairs.

Membership Dues and Structure:
The board reviewed the membership schedule and fees. A “ranch or farm” category was added to the membership fee schedule. This category would allow two members, each with a vote, per membership. A five-year membership was also added. This fee will be effective immediately and will allow members to take advantage of the reduced five-year dues fee if paid by December 31, 2007. A news release will be written regarding the fee and membership dues structure and sent out to llama owners.

As of January 1, 2008 new membership fees will be:

One year Two Years Five Years Five years paid by 12/31/07
Individual $50 $ 90 $225 $200
Ranch/Farm $70 $130 $325 $275
Add’l memb $20 $ 40 $100 $75

DNA Updates:
As of June 1, 2007 the DNA fees will be increased to $35.00 per sample for members and $40.00 for non-members due to increased fees charged by the DNA lab. There are now two methods for DNA analysis available, FTA cards and root-ball analysis. The ILR office can be contacted for full instructions on DNA analysis for collection procedures.

NACA:
The NACA (North American Ccara Association) sent a signed agreement for ILR to manage the NACA sub-registry in accordance with ILR’s existing rules.

ILR Annual Meeting:
The ILR annual meeting will be held in Lincoln, NE, at the ALSA National Show, Thursday, October 25, 2007. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, CST. ILR was asked to sponsor a class at the ASLA National Show. Kristy spoke to Norris Berg for advice on how best to donate to support the youth program. Motion: Mark Smith. Donate $350.00 to be added to enhance the youth premiums at the 2007 ALSA Grand Nationals. Second. Karen Baum. 4 ayes.

Website and Programming Update:
The “Llamas for Sale” sale link on the ILR website is being improved and will be available for members soon.

Allen Schott is working on finalizing the programming for the RegistryManager program. This program will give the office much more flexibility to perform advanced registry services more efficiently, and will allow enhanced on-line registration capabilities in the near future.

The cause of death reports that are sent with the herd lists was updated to reflect more accurate reports.

Meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM, MDT.

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June 1, 2007

Meeting called to order by President Kathi McKinney at 8:15 AM, MDT.

ALSA/Youth Participation:
Kathi spoke with Kay Patterson-Sharpnack, ALSA President, about an update on the possibility of holding an ALSA youth show in conjunction with a conference sponsored by ILR. Mark will continue to work with Barb Harris on the feasibility of this event.

Policy Book:
The board spent most of the day refining rules for the policy book on a Domestic Interim Screening proposal. The policies that have been reviewed for the past several years were modified to reflect screening rules that can be applied to domestic llamas that have not been registered in the past or whose registration information is lost or missing in order to recapture genetics that has been lost over the years. The moratorium on domestic screening only will be lifted for a two-year period from January 1, 2008 until January 1, 2010 and at which time domestic and import screening will be reviewed and reassessed. A press release will be written explaining these policy changes and distributed to the membership within a month for review and comment. The screening form for vet exam and phenotype exam were reviewed and revised.

ILRe-port Update:
Dar Wassink spoke to the board regarding the status of the ILRe-port. It is her feeling, and the board agreed, that the ILRe-port in electronic form is not as widely read as it was in print form and since the cost of postage makes the mailing of the ILReport prohibitive, Dar suggested that communication with the membership might be more effective if done more frequently in a press release format sent by e-mail.

The board and the office staff enjoyed a nice lunch in the office and were able to visit and discuss office operations.

RegistryManager Programming:
Allen Schott reviewed the RegistryManager program and gave a demonstration to the board.

Youth involvement:
The board began discussion of how the ILR could acknowledge and promote youth involvement and several ideas were presented, including incentive programs, youth conferences and a youth show. Mark and Kristy pointed out how enthusiastic the young people are in the Midwest. Discussions involved how other organizations promote and support youth activities and how ILR could cooperate with these efforts.

Meeting adjourned at 6:00 PM, MDT.

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June 2, 2007

Meeting called to order at 8:00 AM, MDT.

Cruise:
Several members of the board wanted to discuss the possibility of another cruise in 2008 or 2009. Kathi will talk with Diane McGillis to explore the possibility of a ILR cruise in February of 2009.

Youth involvement, con’t:
The discussion of the youth involvement was opened again. Kristy suggested an incentive program based on youth participation in all aspects of llama ownership and activities and how points could be awarded for the youth involvement. Mark will contact several ILR members to form an advisory group to prepare proposals to the board on how to proceed to promote this project.

Online Sale Page/Show Module:
Jan will work on the wording of a seller’s disclosure statement for the ILR on-line sale page.

The goal of July 1, 2007 is the date for getting the show module completed. Jan is looking at which shows he can attend for testing the program. If any changes are necessary he can get those made and still have the show module available before ALSA Regional Shows as requested by representatives of the National Show Committee. Having the ability to add show points to a certificate will a good tool for breeders who are interesting in showing and gaining awards for their animals.

Advisory Groups:
The board members made suggestions about how to enthuse the focus groups and get more input from llama owners. Names of members interested in different groups were submitted and will be contacted to ask about their willingness to participate in the various groups. In response to member requests during the Lamaribbean cruise the names of the “focus” groups will be changed to “advisory” groups.

FFA Update:
Mark led discussion about the FFA National Convention to be held October 25-27, 2007, in Indianapolis, IN. Motion: Mark Smith. Donate $850 to the FFA Convention. Second: Kristy Brown. 4 Ayes.

Promotion:
Jan brought materials to the board regarding RFD-TV and the possibility of promoting llamas through that venue. It would be important to have the ILR website complete enough and compelling enough to attract interest of non-llama owners once they took the time to research llamas. Obviously there will be a lot of research to do before any action can be taken but the process needs to be started to determine if it is feasible for the ILR to proceed. The board gave Jan the go-ahead to look into the costs and logistics of this promotion and report back to the board.

Election of officers:
President: Karen Baum
Vice President: Mark Smith
Treasurer: Kathi McKinney
Secretary: Sally Taylor

Karen reviewed the “to do” list for the board. Meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM, MDT.

Respectfully submitted,
Sally Taylor
Secretary